#I think I'm gonna animate each part individually

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 1, day 3

Colored all the lined animation for the back arm and extended the placeholder frames for everything else just so I can get a general idea of how it's all gonna work together once I start animating the every other part of her. Plus some more behind-the-scenes cleaning up that will make things easier for me in the future again :) I think I've gotten everything prepped so I can just focus on drawing and coloring from here on

[parisoonic]

How the hell do you manage to superimpose the hilariously exagerated proportions of the tf2 mercs into a cohesive 2d style? I always struggle SO much with like, the way the mercs' models have huge hands, the way they have relatively low-poly definition on things like arms, shoulders, and legs... and Especially the way like, the models are kinda janky when you pose them for art purposes- when using movement tools, things like armpits and seams between body parts get all deformed... Which makes the study of form and silhouette rather difficult.

I assume that a lot of your ability to translate the concept of the mercs from their original mediums into your own works of art comes to you quite naturally- through experience you have with drawing and art style stuff, as well as through intuition. I was simply wondering if I could poke at your mind and get some insight into your process, any thoughts you have about the proportions and silhouettes of the mercs, any quirks you've found while drawing the mercs, or simply what you enjoy drawing about them. Like, don't be afraid to infodump about something just because you think people wouldn't find it interesting- I am here, I am sitting, and I am listening- if you so choose to speak.

I am utterly fascinated and enraptured by the more behind-the-scenes aspect of art. The mundane things that come second nature to great artists yet seem so revolutionary to less experienced artists.

I love your work, I look forward to seeing more of it, and I hope you have a nice day :]

Sorry for the late reply! I've been a little…stuck on how to answer this but that's mainly because to me, drawing is composed of SO many different little skills - you have form, anatomy, shape language, silhouette, appeal, rhythm, acting and posing…not to mention everything AFTER your raw draughtmanship like line style, rendering and colour theory. Trying to distill a multiude of small skills into some pithy advice is overwhelming to my brain. So I'll take the invitation to ramble instead :))

I don't think I have any new or revolutionary insight into the tf2 guys specifically - more I'm using them as work horses to excercise general silhouette/posing/shape-language and further my skills when it comes to drawing characters!

I do agree though the proportions are rather silly when you stop and think about them realistically…they can be kinda tricky if you follow their 'actual' proportions. what looks great individually was maybe never meant to be directly compared (ie: Heavy's hand size against Spy's lol). It would've been funny if the TV show exsisted and we had more content to review…would the animators have had rules like Spy and Heavy can never shake hands? Would they cheated the proportions for shots? Or would they have said WHATVER it's gonna look weird and embraced it? (Like Kingpin in Spiderverse lol)

Paul Lasaine for 'Into the Spiderverse' This is AWESOME. But it's also one of the silliest designs I've ever seen comitted to screen. The varied scales of the characters work because of the unifying treatment (lighting, rendering, consistant hand anatomy, consistant clothing fold treatment etc) and because they are sort of proportional within themselves. A common mantra is that hands should be about as large as a characters face....which they all are here!

Human brains are very flexible and forgiving though. It's totally fine for you to put a character with huge hands and head next to a teeny tiny character! Vanellope and Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph look grand next to each other! And in that film you even have varying levels of stylisation sitting against each other (unified by the look dev treatment of the shaders and lighting). I think as long as the chracter is proportional within themselves it sort of works out. IE: a general rule is that a hand should be as large as the face so…you can have some large arse hands as long as their placed on a body with a big arse head. Unifying characters with the same treatment (ie: lineart brush, colouring style will also help them look cohesive next to each other :) )

I don't actually reference the 3D models/animations very much at all and instead draw their proportions based on my tastes for stylisation following their general vibes/silhouette profiles. I don't stick THAT close to their in-game looks and there are artists who do that are so so so much better than me (Creedei and Flapjack come to mind). I'm not amazing at body-type differentation and TBH they're all wearing chunky clothes all the time so I usually draw the guys as one-of-three body shapes: Heavy is the uniquely wide guy; Sniper/Scout/Spy are all tall and slim and Demo/Soldier/Medic/Engie have a little more of the generic 'hero' bodytype with varying tallness and broadness of the shoulders

Something like this! You can vary all these individual elements in terms of size, thickness, taper amount etc to create different characters. If you ARE going to reference the 3d works though you'll need to apply some anatomy knowledge to overcome the weird shoulders, armpits and knees which desperately need blendshapes to correct the 3D volumes and approach it a little more like an animation supervisor. There's a reason why you see in making-ofs and art-ofs character designers, character leads or animation supes doing drawovers of the models. These are character models that have had great effort put into their 'base' silhouette but it still needs to be reinforced in every frame for maximum appeal.

Shiyoon Kim for 'Raya' This sort of thing will occur at multiple stages during the animation process. Shiyoon Kim's notes are post final model but pre-animation. Most likely for internal rig tests, exploring what blend shapes and alt shapes are needed for the rigs etc. If your production has time, this will continue all the way to final anim. IF! But it's interesting to see how he emphasises the shapes and enhances the character acting of the 3d model.

As for 'mundane things' - I wouldn't say they're second nature! (If that makes you feel better!) I have to actively really persue certain advice and try to figure out how to best apply it. This can sometimes involve redrawing and redrawing an element of the drawing until I've grasped the nettle of whatever I'm after or…..until I get frustrated and either delete the drawing or just call it done lol

Here, I'm looking for a really specific flow of the head that sells both the acting and a subtle head tilt. I'm also trying to apply the general mantra regarding faces that converging lines (set by the eyebrows and mouth) are more appealing than parallel. It's tough! I also tend to use a drawing I've already done as a template/reference on the page too. Oh! This page is an amazing example of why I'm not an animator or storyboarder…consistancy? Who is she? 💅

Converging lines (that form tapered shapes) are always more appealing than parallel. Using this logic you can loft the facial features across converging lines to create dynamic appealing espressions. Combining this with anatomy, perspective and rotation is the tough part though. I'm still learning o7

The things I probably think about MOST are always flats vs curves, simple vs complex and general line of action/flow...and then eliminting tangents. Each of these can be a dedicated visual-essay on their own - hence my stumbling as to answer your question. Anyhow, not sure if it's ever come up on this blog but I looove dinosaurs :)) so i'm using a wee piece to demostrate these ideas! (but also to demostrate these concepts apply to everything from humans characters to animals, props and background design)

Okay, I'm getting self-aware that this is getting really long :') I have a wee tutorial tag for my blog if anyone wants to comb through my garbled art-thoughts. Learning, studying, repetition and practice will always be the greatest teachers! I'm glad you like my art- thank you so much for the lovely comments - I feel like such a noob still and not qualified to give people advice but we're in it together learning! High-five! 🙌

[lordprettyflackotara]

sharp fangs || sam and colby || part three

smut minors dni 18+. tw: blood suckin hoes. also if you hate this so do i, the finale is gonna be the redemption.

It was unusual for Colby to have a differing opinion from Sam.

After all of their years together the two agreed on everything, except for one thing.

Your mortality.

The longer Sam and Colby stayed with you, the longer Colby began to recognize your concern about staying human. You had been begging for the past six months for them to turn you into one of them. You craved to be just like them, so you were guaranteed a spot in their trio forever. However, Sam disagreed. He feared for your soul, as well as wanting you to be the happiest version of yourself. He doubted becoming a vampire would allow that. You’d have to mysteriously disappear, cutting off all of your family and friends. Sam thought you deserved the stereotypical human experience, one that ended with the sweet relief of death.

You didn’t agree though and overtime, neither did Colby.

In Colby’s spare time he couldn’t help but notice how helplessly fragile humans were. When out stealing blood bags he could hear how sick humans could get at the hospital. They were just so incomprehensibly weak. Before you he had never given it much thought, but now with you invading every corner of his mind it was all he could think about. You laid curled up on his chest as he thought about it once more, his fingers absentmindedly playing with your hair. You were practically purring in satisfaction, his fingers always rubbing the right places on your scalp. Sam emerged from the closet, straightening out his jacket. "Alright, i'm gonna head out to hunt," He announced. Recently the boys had tried animal blood, or Sam had at least. It helped keep the deer population in check, even if it were a little ways away. Colby lied and said he did too, but he couldn't let the taste of human blood go. Animal blood was just so stale to him.

With human blood there was always a guessing game. Would it be sweet? Sour? Tangy? Blood types didn't even help the prediction, each human so uniquely different it was always a surprise. The sweetest Colby had ever had the pleasure of tasting though, was yours. Colby watched you kiss Sam goodbye, the blonde playfully squeezing your ass before jumping out of your window. You were used to this routine, one hunting while one stayed. It gave you time with each of them separately as well as protection.

You walked back over to Colby, an oversized t shirt of his covering your small frame. "So princess what did you want to do while he's gone?" Colby asked, propping his hands behind his head. You grinned as you climbed on top of him straddling his hips. "You know what I always want to do," You purred. Your thin panties rubbed against his jeans, Colby's large hands instantly finding your hips. The brunette found himself annoyed at the rule he and Sam made for your protection. Neither of them could have you individually, due to the unpredictable nature that came with being a blood sucking demon. If they were both in attendance it was guaranteed you'd be able to walk out of the room a human afterwards.

Normally this was as far as you both ever got, Colby encouraging you to return to his side for more affectionate cuddling. Yet he recognized the glint in your eyes that had been there for the past few months. You craved immortality just as much as he craved your blood. "Sam would be so mad at us," You panted, feeling his hips roll upwards into yours. Colby sat up, pressing slow kisses against your neck. He could feel the blood running through your veins. Your pulse was deliciously high, from his touch he assumed. "Do you want this as badly as I do?" Colby panted. You understood the double meaning in his words, your heart racing. "You'd make it feel good, right?" You asked, avoiding the question. Colby smirked against your skin, his cold hands exploring under your shirt.

"Don't I always princess?"

You grabbed his hair, forcing him to look at you in the eye. "You know how badly I want to be one of you. To run freely with you both all over the world," You said. He tucked some stray hairs behind your ears, his crimson red eyes blown with lust. "Sam will forgive you," Colby replied confidently. You brought your lips to his, your body swarming with warmth and anxiousness. You had been bit many times before, but knowing what was to come next made you antsy. Colby played with the hem of your shirt, tossing it over your head and onto the floor. He relished in the sight of your nipples growing perky under the cool night air. You swallowed as you tilted your head back, your eyes nervously fluttering shut. "Let me play with you first," Colby chuckled, flipping the two of you around.

Your back hit the mattress before you could comprehend it, a gasp escaping your lips. Colby wanted to take his time with you. After all, he had plenty of it. But he knew Sam would be eager to come back for another late night affair. He kissed down your chest, humming against the warmth your skin provided. He was soaking it in, a feeling he knew would be different by the time he was done with you. "I will miss your warmth," He admitted, his lips reaching your thin panties. He sometimes pondered why you even wore them, considering you found yourself without them more times then not. "At least i'll be able to keep up with you, you both always go so fast," You whimpered, feeling him rip your panties into shreds of the material. Each time it surprised you, no matter how many times he did it. Colby was impatient and impulsive. He did what he wanted and thought about the consequences later.

"You like it though, when we go fast," Colby teased, bringing two fingers to your soaked entrance. Your prep work was always for more pleasure then business. They fucked you so frequently a singular digit wasn't needed, both of their cocks and fingers always keeping you so impossibly full. He shoved them inside of you, watching your mouth fall open as he curled them. "See? Your face scrunching up in pleasure just from my fingers?" He teased. He began to curl his fingers faster, abusing your g spot as he pleased. Your legs always immediately started trembling, your moans sinful and unhinged. You tilted your head back, clawing at the sheets. You were close to cumming already, the night promising the usual several orgasms the boys were guaranteed to provide. Yet just as you were about to cum Colby removed his fingers, leaning over you. He began to undo his pants, his fangs popping out as he grinned down at you.

"Ready princess?"

"For you? Always."

You felt him begin to align himself with your entrance, before leaning down over your neck. He licked his lips, shoving himself inside as he bit into you. The taste of your blood was gratifying and delicious, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he bottomed out inside of you. You were in a pure state of bliss, seeing stars as Colby sucked your blood. You couldn't control your strangled moans and groans, your legs wrapping around his waist to bring him closer. You were on cloud nine, whimpering as dark spots began to cloud your vision. Your heart went from pounding to slowing, your pleasure being overridden by dizziness. Your breath became shallow, your body falling limp against the mattress. You couldn't even feel Colby's thrust anymore, your consciousness draining. You felt fear wash over you, your hearing dulling. Through the darkness grabbing at you, you could hear Sam's voice.

"Colby!"

[kurosagi-h8r]

Tokyo Debunkers x Enstars

as i promised lol. im just gonna point out why they're similar and some hc on what i think they would act like or do if they meet each other. i don't give 100% attention to all of enstars characters (there's 49 of them give me a break), meaning i don't analyze them in great details so please do correct me if i'm wrong on certain things.

Izumi Sena & Romeo Lucci

starting off with a fan favorite my favorites

both are famous for being harsh, bullies, nagging (according to others), and complain a lot (also according to others)

both are METICULOUS when it comes to appearance and they live in the name of beauty (maybe i do have a type)

Izumi's hobby is literally health management since he works as both model and idol but in the story he's shown to be more ambitious in the modeling industry (since it's the career he gain individually while idol is a group thing) but ofc he's still taking his idol job seriously too.

Izumi lives in Florence, Italy for his modeling jobs. ITALY!

I'll be honest with you my first impression of Romeo was "this guy is Izumi if he has a gun and can curse as easy as he breathe" since in enstars you can't really do both of them. Believe me when I say they way they talk and sound are so similar (or perhaps because im biased) that at one point i was too much in denial to let the world know that i like these two

OUT OF ANY TYPE THAT I CAN HAVE, I JUST HAD TO HAVE THIS ONE???! fml

I can see them being best friends. Izumi is living in Italy with his unit-mate Leo (Tsukinaga) while Romeo has Taiga to take care of and I just know they'd talk shit about those two like they're rats living in their apartment rent free but the second they wanna be independent they'd claim that "Your life is mine. You should've thought about that before giving it all up in the palm of my hand."

If I can ask for one thing I would ask Izumi to model for Romeo's brand. Both of them has eyes for fashion and they'd either agree on every piece or have a long argument on why something is not worth to be presented into the world. And honestly if Romeo has to listen to someone on this topic, Izumi would be the person he'll listen to despite both of them can be headstrong at times. There's just no way they don't understand one another on first meeting.

These two are TWINS separated at birth.

Kaoru Hakaze & Rui Mizuki

whores

"straight" playboy who both happen to be blonde

the way both of them actually said that they're not into guys multiple times is too funny to me. aren't you gonna address the "vampire" that's attached to your hip :/

and yes they both flirted with MC

and yes both of their "Likes" had/has MC in them

Kaoru's specialty was SMELLING GIRLS

HE CAN DETECT GIRLS FROM THEIR SCENTS (failed a few times tho)

yk i thought Kaoru was bad in the anime but now he stops being a flirt ever since "!!" era he's actually ok

Until I know of Rui's existence... Kaoru was NOTHING compared to him im sorry dude 😭 Rui just,,, straight up invite you to bed despite his curse and shit,, Kaoru just never did that (i think) but hey i believe if kaoru was also cursed he'd also go all out.

Rui can talk about anything to him but the most concerning part was the fact that he couldn't touch girls anymore. And I can see Kaoru sympathizing with him.

Oh and also the fact that they have vampires for dorm/unit leaders that they're in charge of

Malewives bond

Chiaki Morisawa & Haru Sagara

These two would not think twice to save their loved ones even tho they're well aware it's going to hurt them bad. Haru never mentioned about being a hero or liking any hero stuff like Chiaki but they're both giving hero vibes to me. Chiaki is Ranger Red in his unit while Haru is literally a ranger (ik it's two different thing but let me have this).

THEY'RE SO............ IF I CAN PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE TO MAKE THEM STOP SACRIFICING THEMSELVES LIKE THAT I WOULD'VE DONE IT ALREADY! Stop taking all the burden yourself yk :<

Chiaki is called the dad of the group while Haru is the mom of the house lol. And their partners are the slow spoken, soft-looking, other-worldly human that look like cinamonroll but would kill anyone who hurt them (will be mentioned in this post)

Listen... I think Ryuseitai (the idol unit Chiaki is in) should collab with Jabberwock... like, Chiaki love to perform especially to inspire kids about heroes and Jabberwock can profit from more people coming to the safari.

Another one of their hobbies is to bother their "slacker" juniors. Midori and Ren which I will talk about in this post too.

Let's be real Jabberwock is basically Ryuseitai (minus two members)

Stupid Trio

THE REASON IM PUTTING THOSE THREE IN THE BEGINNING WAS BECAUSE I NEED YOU ALL TO KNOW THAT NOT ONLY THEY'RE INDIVIDUALLY SIMILAR TO EACH OTHER BUT ALSO AS A GROUP. Imagine my surprise when I find out that dumbass trio in enstars also exist in tkdb... and their dynamics are basically the same... Romeo, Rui, and Haru being friends from different houses is basically like Izumi, Kaoru, and Chiaki being friends from different unit (they used to be classmates in 3rd grade tho).

Romeo and Izumi is the complainer who are never satisfied; Haru and Chiaki are the always-smiling ones who would drag them towards chaos (the source of headache for the grey characters); Rui and Kaoru are the miserable playboy who is either chaos enabler or the mature one when needed (usually the chaos enabler).

Either way they're all malewives. All 6 of them. I love finding them in every universe and I hope they always do find each other.

And the reason I love this group of friends the most were because of Romeo and Izumi... the other two are such a headache for them lol (sorry not sorry romeo izumi)

I like each of them individually but I will sell my soul to see these trio interacts.

Rei Sakuma & Edward Hart

bloodsuckers

For Rei it's just a persona but he actually carry a genetic disease that makes him unable to be active much during the day. This guy avoids the sun as much as Ed does and instead of sucking blood he drinks tomato juice.

Maybe Rei is actually Ed's descendant but the vampire genetic got washed down after so many generations lol

the always-tired leaders who just sit there mysteriously as they observe everything around them. They had the wisdom and power to take over the world but they're too merciful to do so. Or maybe because they know people are too stubborn to listen to them, so why bother?

"What defines human?"

Old grandpas who rely too much on their blonde wives (Kaoru and Rui) and love to tease their "pet" wolf lol (Koga and Lyca).

Ed is every trait of persona that Rei builds around himself in a flesh I find it so funny.

Rei and Ed would understand each other so well. Rei was mature beyond his age (even when he was a kid) and it's never easy for someone to be that way. The burden they've been carrying would be enough for them to be the villain but they just... don't.

Would show off their wives like they're trophy wives and they'd even make it a competition. Believe me on this.

Kanata Shinkai & Towa Otonashi

The spouse of the hero/ranger leader lol. And they can be overly protective about it.

Looks like cinamonroll but can actually kill you.

Stronger than they look... they're just... they can be dangerous if you push the wrong buttons.

They're really weird in their own way 😭. Towa eats flowers and Kanata love to soak himself in water whenever he got the chance so that he doesn't dry up (he used to be this cult god and for a period of his life he believed he was god of the sea or something. correct me if I'm wrong)

Kanata's theme revolve around fish and sea theme (his family owns some kind of aquatic creature business(?) well, aquariums) so whenever he's seen cooking or eating fish people would call it cannibalism 😭 but then he says it's ok to eat those creatures that he "rules" 😭. As for Towa... well we know what happens to anomalies who piss him off and he's not stuttering when he says he's the big guy in the area.

very similar manner of speaking, i can't really give you links to kanata's voice lines so you can just look up his name 😭🙏

Koga Oogami & Lyca Colt

tsundere puppies who actually admires their leaders but wouldn't openly admit it in the open

so yeah they bite the hands of their leaders

and also would openly oppose their team members. Koga used to call Kaoru Frivolous Guy and Flirty Bastard and Lyca calls Rui Blond Gigolo. Fitting names tbh and they deserve a reward for it.

strong sense of smell, both of them got sensitive nose.

looks rough on the edge but have gardening and painting for hobbies. so cute <3 (i feel like they'd glare at me for saying this)

I love that they both share the same eye color

If Obscuary has a frankenstein student (*cough* Jiro *cough) Obscuary would be Undead. Similar students, similar dynamics.

Midori Takamine & Ren Shiranami

I wouldn't really call Midori a slacker tbh, simply because Ren is worst 😭 at least Midori help around with his family business (grocery store)

They openly dislike their leader (Chiaki and Haru). I mean they do pester them a lot so... Haru would enter Ren's room without permission to give him a set of tasks, while Chiaki also wouldn't respect Midori's personal space and force him to sit down and watch Tokusatsu movies as a part of his training 😭

"Torture? No way! It's part of their training!" said Chiaki and Haru in unison. These two are Ren and Midori's nightmare fr. Good thing Midori doesn't have someone who actively wants to get rid of him like Towa tho.

Ren is into b-rate horror movies and gacha games while Midori love collecting plushies. Honestly tho if they both watch horror movies together they wouldn't be scared they would laugh the entire time probably.

Midori: "Ugh this is the worst I wanna kms. Why do i have to have HIM ordering me around" Ren: "You and me both. Let's ditch."

Rinne Amagi & Taiga Hoshibami

A BIT NSFT ⚠ just don't read the red ones

I thought Rinne was crazy until they invent Taiga

red haired gamblers who annoy people around them and say the gayest shit out in the open to their members

impulsive mfs with massive amount of luck they even gamble with their life without caring how it's gonna affect people close to them but they take those risk for the sake of others anyway

I can say in confidence that the second Rinne and Taiga meet each other they would kiss and make out right there and then. God did not do so for a reason because they're too powerful together.

Surprisingly enough Rinne is more conservative than you think. He would never kiss outside of marriage and as much as I like the thought of Taiga and Romeo kissing, I think Taiga would also hold himself back until he and Romeo got married. Just my personal hc tho.

They're geniuses but their behavior doesn't want you to think they are. (I'm not RinneP myself but I'm sick when people say he's dumb just because he's from a village... dude literally spend his time in library when he's not gambling lol)

I think if they switch place for a day they would have the time of their lives. Rinne running a casino??? It would take ten men to get him out of that place. Taiga maybe wouldn't be into those idol stuff but he would get into a fight with Kohaku so fast (a trained assassin turned idol IK ENSTARS IS WEIRD I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT MYSELF). Crazy:B will no longer be Crazy:B, it will be Crazy:T(aiga/Tiger).

[carinavi5]

I can't do anything to help those in Valencia, but I at least want to say my opinion.

I don't live close enough to go offer my help, and I can't really donate right now. I don't have a car and I live pretty far away from the city, which is where the main points to collect food, water and clothes are at.

But I'm seeing so much help from the rest of the Spaniards. Giant amounts of food and water being sent that way, and an even bigger amount of Valencians or people that live nearby walking to the most affected places carrying food, water and clothes, and shovels, brooms, buckets and whatever they each had in their home that could be used to help. Seeing all those people, all those volunteers, helping is heartwarming. Good people do exist. Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo. Only the village saves the village.

I want to clarify all this people are going there walking or biking because they aren't use the roads to not oversaturate them.

Now, let's being. What has happened?

Before: The day before AEMET, the State Meteorology Agency, had been giving warnings and updating their social media and all that saying that this was big. But nonetheless, no official warnings where given by the state. School and work was all continuing as before. No kind of informative help was sent to the people.

During: Rain. A shit ton of rain. A years worth of rain in 8 hours. Even in the places with no rain the effects are catastrophic, the rivers have caused floodings, and the cities, towns and villages have all been covered by meters of water. I don't know how much. (I also want to say that I'm no expert, but why had it been allowed to build in certain areas?)

The water rises in minutes, is fast, and with no warning no one was prepared. People were off to work, continuing with their every day life, now trapped wherever the flood caught them. Many others had gone to their garages to try and get their cars out when they saw that they were starting to flood. And many people have died in them, trapped. Don't blame these people, no kind of warning of how big this was gonna be was given, cars are a very big economical investment for the families and, again, the water rises too fast to really do much.

Cars and all kind of big, sharp and heavy crap being dragged by the water. That water also contaminated (by what the river in itself had, the liquids that came from inside the cars and other places, and now by the decomposing organic matter), so those inevitably swimming in it were in great danger for many reasons.

Think about the animals too. Ah, and also, no light nor electricity while all this was going on.

I've seen people on social media saying how it all went for them. I'm not gonna say their individual stories, but if you look them up, you'll be able to find them.

Immediately after: The people went to different stores to try and get food, water and medicine. All this stores were already broken and had been affected by the floodings. And still some newspapers (you know who you are) were trying to put shame on this people. Yes, I guess some people could have used the commotion to steal from houses or jewelry stores or whatever, but it wasn't the case of what they were showing, and it's not what the vast majority of people where doing.

Many others were out looking for their missing relatives. Some started to walk towards the big city nearby, to find some help. The conditions of the streets were apocalyptic.

A bit more time after: What I've said at the beginning. The affected throwing out the things inside their house that were too damaged by the water. Still no food, water or electricity. The roads blocked by the residues of what the water had dragged. Lots of mud everywhere. And the good people going there to offer their help. To clean the streets and their houses.

More or less right now: Other parts of Spain and even other countries offer help and resources. That help is denied. It took too long for the military to be sent to this places, but they are advising the volunteers not to go help, that theres no need anymore and that they are making it harder for the "actual help" to go. Lies. There's no emergency services help, no policemen, firefighters or military helping. And not because they don't want to, the help they offer is being rejected, not authorized.

Cleaning all that mud is so hard. All the help is appreciated. With proper equipment and machinery this would be easier.

Who to blame: The government of Valencia. Some say the one from the whole Spain for not applying certain measures. If you follow the law, the one to ask for certain measures to be taken is the Government of Valencia. And changing the whole administration of a disaster in the middle of it is just not a good idea, even if it's going late, because everything would be even more postponed.

And what truly makes them the ones to blame, they CHOSE not to warn the people, but they had cut down the budget for the emergency services and gave it to bullfighting instead.

Now the number of deaths is around 209, but there are still many disappeared people.

If you don't want to blame rain on anyone (some are saying climate change, others are arguing back saying that this has happened before), at least blame how they handled it.

Blame Carlos Mazón.

The king, queen, president of Spain and president of Valencia have gone to one of the affected places, Paiporta. I don't know why they are there, they are obviously not helping with the manual labor and are not saying anything useful either. I've seen some stuff around, I don't know what's really going on so for now I don't say anything. But the people were screaming at them and throwing stuff.

Some days after I'm still not too sure what's happening rn in Spain lol.

[amerricanartwork]

Current digital art process!

Acting on @shkika 's request because making my redraw for this post actually ended up giving me more confidence in my digital art process! As such, I'm gonna use it as a reference. And if this walkthrough of sorts turns out nice, I might do it again as my process evolves!

I started off with a quick sketch of sorts, trying to focus both on movement and volume, and get the general idea of where each element is located. I edit the image dimensions and placement of things a lot in this phase, as my ideas often tend to change once I actually begin drawing them. In this case, as I got it down, I decided I wanted it to look like some cheesy animal motivational poster, so that influenced where the text was.

From there, I began to clean and sometimes edit the sketch, mainly by thickening the lines to make the shapes more definite, and erasing what wasn't necessary and interfered with other parts. Volume is one of my biggest focuses in my drawings, so I try my best to get the volume of each character at least hinted at with the lines. This is something that will probably remain in my process for a while, as I quite dislike doing separate lineart and like the messy, sketchy feel anyway.

I also wanna mention, in addition to having references and such in other windows, I've recently begun having a second mini window of my current drawing off to the side so I can see what it looks like overall more easily, regardless of how much I zoom in on and flip the main window. It's quite helpful!

For reference, this is what the final sketch looked like:

Then, I went on to add the flat colors. Another tip: I almost always set my sketch layer to "Lumi & Shade" because I think it makes the line colors a lot richer, but since it's based on what colors are underneath, it colors the lines a lot more individually than changing the sketch color as a whole. Here's some comparison to a version without the effect (left):

Then, I add some shading using a (really nice) marker brush. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of the process, just trying to carve out all the volumes, especially since I usually use a pretty blue color for shadows!

Sometimes, I honestly just leave drawings finished at this step, because I adore the sketchy look so much, and because I really don't like the tediousness of more realistic rendering in the painting process; from what I've seen/experienced, it often involves having to basically paint the entire image over again, which I've realized I find REALLY boring (and is also why I clean the sketch instead of making a new lineart layer). As such, one of my hopes is to reach a point where I could almost completely avoid having to clean up the image in a traditional painting method, instead being able to lay down lines and colors so well that they convey nearly all the volume necessary on their own, still have that sketchy appeal, yet also look finished and professional.

Alas, I did do a bit of clean up on this image, but I think it still turned out alright!

Here's the finished drawing! I'll have to practice with this process a bit more to truly solidify it as my digital go-to, but nonetheless, I think this came out adorable! Thanks again shkika for the ask, and thanks to @mintscampi for the sweet prompt! I hope you guys like it!

[lazodiac]

It's time again to look at Thunder Junction's cards and try and divine where each and every one of these bad boys are from.

Also just a note in case people are curious; since Tumblr has a 30 image limit per post, I'll be doing all of The Big Score at the end, after all the colours and stuff. It's my prerogative and I'll do as I please. If you missed the first part, you can find it here! So without further ado, it is time for...

BLUE

While I don't think EVERY mount is from Thunder Junction Proper... newts ARE a creature that shows up in the west. I was initially thinking this could be for Eldraine, especially given it belongs to an archmage, but... ultimately, I think this is a native to the plane.

Another native, and dare I say this is a CHARISMATIC crab. I love the crystals on its back! I also love the blue cacti nearby it? Those are real by the way!

There aren't many turtle-men in Magic. Three, in fact, before this one; the Lagoon Sage, a Quandrix student, and a Kappa from Kamigawa. The Kappa has a VERY distinct look, the Quandrix is a sea turtle, and the Lagoon Sage is a snapper just like the Thunder-Thief over here... and I'm gonna make a called shot and say this is from Bloomburrow as a result!

Homarid are a Dominaria specialty, so this racist bastard is absolutely from there.

Djinn of this type are only found on Tarkir, so this one is easy. He's taken a break from his dragon-infested plane to relax under a waterfall martial artist style, and that's just kinda fun.

This is a tricky one, since the ability is pretty plane agnostic, and the design doesn't evoke much in it... but her collar DOES have the typical three-fang Dimir tell, and it'd fit both colour and what she's doing, so lets go with Ravnica.

Sadly a cursory Wiki glance tells me only that this guy is from America.

... okay okay, taking this seriously; the wings and the scroll and the steps, the name, all the flavour suggests this is from Amonkhet for me. It could be from elsewhere, but this feels the most "correct" for lack of a better term. I wish cards like this would get flavor text reprints down the line though...

These are some home-grown ghosts, and we know from various other stories (Gideon, Elspeth, etc) that when you die you go to the afterlife of the plane you're on... so these are some newly "born" natives.

These unfortunate individuals are from the dead plane of Oregon.

... what? I already used that joke? Okay fine. There really isn't any actual signifiers here, and the only humanoid in the art is too indistinct to tell. Given the content of the card is trying and failing to ford one of Thunder Junction's mighty rivers, I'm calling this card "native to the plane" for lack of anything else appropriate.

Oh hey it's everyone's favorite running gag from Ravnica. Fblthp is an easy one, so instead of elaborating more on our mono-eyed friend instead I'll bring up a question I want any of you reading this to answer.

Didn't they say during the initial preview teasers that there was an important plot event happening in the background of this card? That never bore fruit and I can't remember the exact preview stream I heard it, but I swear I did. I want someone to confirm this for me. I'm abusing my power.

Regrettably, the flavor text makes this spell be sourced from Oko's Home Plane. I do love this weird tumbleweed creature though!

God I hate Oko he's such a scum bag (derogatory).

A personal favorite character of mine, Geralf is an Innistradi born and raised, here to investigate the Thunder of the plane- as well as test how mana bonds work for planebound folk now that they have access to planar travel. Good luck, sir.

An obvious native of the plane. I quite like the flavor of this card as well by the way, it's just a clever way to incorporate the geysers you would occasionally see in the old west.

Another Thunder Junction native! It's wild how many of these there actually are, but wild animals do make up a bulk of cards in Magic so it's not THAT unreasonable.

Fun lore tidbit; allegedly the Thunder only started after the Omenpaths opened up. No one has lived here before that so no one can confirm that is true, and this flavor text suggests otherwise.

One of the only cards showcasing the least important members of Oko's gang of ruffians! Kaervek and Satoru busting out of jail thanks to the help of Annie Flash. The framing of the card makes it feel more like Kaervek's doing the real world (valid, Satoru is a loser this entire story) so I'm gonna call it for Zhalfir here- and yes even though technically everyone from Zhalfir is from Dominaria, it's a plane all its own now. I make the rules here!

The Fomorian made star-key to open up their vault on Thunder Junction, I feel like it is safe to say this was made here. It's got little arcs of Thunder and even looks like a deputy star, so it fits the vibe.

Fun fact; being a six pointed star, plus the fact that in the story they mentioned the sixth slot started glowing purple, I briefly had the idea that they might be implying the Fomorian's know of Purple magic and we'll get it in the big Space set we're getting down the line. Then I remembered Cosmium is purple and a major energy source for the Fomorion people, so nevermind.

I can't confidently say this is from Bloomburrow, given we don't know how big the people of that plane can get- so far they've maxed out at Badger and Fox- but I really don't know where this guy could be from otherwise! Maybe Ravnica? So lets call this Bloomburrow until corrected otherwise.

Incidentally this is one of my favorite pieces of art in the set. Love this fucking guy.

Beyond all the art signifiers, I believe it was straight up said on twitter this is a Therosian Sphinx, so she's from Theros. Good for her. Why is she wearing spurs...?

I'm fairly confident this is meant to depict Stella Lee, and she's from the Atiin people, so that's where this is from! Rundo meanwhile sounds like a Ravnica, but that's just some trivia.

This one I'm not fully sure on. The little bird like flecks of white in his magic, the watery energy... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't quite place it. The red and blue suggests Izzet but then he's a Slickshot, the red-blue faction on Thunder Junction. I'm gonna go with my gut and say Ravnica, though.

Shit like this is why I wish we'd gotten a planeswalker guide...

Blue, so far, has some of the most easy and obvious ones to place, and for this I'm thankfully. This guy is a Stitcher, so he's from Innistrad. Easy as.

She's got some of the Sterling Company aesthetic going on, but I'm a stickler for stupid jokes so I'm gonna say she's from Zendikar. The armor could evoke Sea Gate, and they've always been good with ropes so why NOT translate that to combat?

Like with the earlier ghosts, dead-then-revived means you're native to Thunder Junction... but also this guy is clearly an Obscura from New Capenna, using some of his old magic, so I'mma call it for the big city here.

Oko's big bad gang preparing for the heist of the life-time. Since it's Oko's big idea it's from Oko's stupid plan.

The sort of misty blasts of fire and ice we're seeing here is aesthetically similar to the "gunfire" magic of New Capenna. I love this guy by the way.

Hey wait a second Ashiok can't do stuff like this. They can only read nightmares, not minds!

YEah for those of you who don't know, the Ashiok in this set is actually Jace in disguise! So this is from home-grown celtic Vryn mind-shredding. Our hero(?) ladies and gentlehommes.

An actual Sterling Company goon, though at least this one has a funny joke to his card. I still really like the work they did in making sure every weapon used in the set has the needed arcing loop for Thunder to channel through it.

Oh right the reason why we're here. I'm gonna say New Capenna again, because there's basically no defining traits here. Also god I just realized he's missing the front brim of his hat and it looks terrible. Graywater pay your men properly they can't even afford complete hats!

It took me a bit to realize what was happening in this card. The lady in the back is only choosing the final Spree option here, swapping around the Outcaster and the Hellspur's clothing. Rude!

Clothing swap spells seems like a funny prank to pull at magical college, so Arcavios is where this is going.

I think in cases where I just cannot make any reasonable assumptions based on art, I should look at mechanics. Flashback is usually in Innistrad... but this lady's neckline is WAY too exposed for that Even accounting for the new plane... honestly I give up, the only real identifying factor here is her little lockpick device, which... kinda looks Kamigawan? Lets go with that.

The vibe, the way she wears her hat, and the little phone cord(?) on her belt makes me think of New Capenna. Look some of these are really difficult and I gotta go by vibes!

And that's the 30 card limit, give me a half second for part two!

[ihni]

My 2023 in fics

Tagged by @billyharringson, thank you, this was a lot of fun!

January: Hot and Cold (or How To Serve Revenge) - a fic I wrote in January (but posted in February, schhhh). Got challenged by @callieb to write hurt/no comfort, and I have it on good authority that I succeeded ... (it has spawned no less than two fix-its and one more continuation by other people so far, which I am awfully pleased about actually)

February: Again and again and again and again, a time loop fic that I love, and would like to read like 80K about. ... yes, read. I don't have time to write more on it now. But I had so much fun writing this, and it is one of my favorite kinds of fics; a short one with potential.

March: March was busy. There was Billy's Birthday Bonanza, and also I wrote for the Billy Hargrove Bingo. I posted a lot of fics then, most of them short. So I'm gonna link two, because I can (and no one told me any rules for this tagging game); Boys, Beards and Best Friends, because it was so much fun writing Billy and Heather being BFFs and also the boys being set up, and then Over the edge, which is one of my favorites, because it was so goddamn fun to write! (Murder mystery prank going wrong, muahahaaa! Don't worry though, no one dies for real.)

April: A piece of meaning on your skin, a little fic I wrote for the Harringrove Flip Reverse It event, about the boys choosing tattoos for each other as a part of a bet. I still think it's cute.

May: I like Flo, okay, and like to incorporate her into fics. In Patience, I wrote about her first impressions of Billy, for the Billy Hargrove Bingo.

June-July: Posted in June, finished posting in July (but written on and off over the course of several years previous ...), Taking Notes is my longest fanfic yet at about 93K. And, listen, I love it. It's a body swap fic, where the boys swap bodies. And then again. And again. Etc. I am so proud of this one, actually.

August: Posted Pal, which is 17K of Billy befriending a stray demodog. I 100% believe Billy would like animals better than most humans, and this fic is basically him being a bit dumb but also a good friend to Pal, the demodog. And then them going into protective mode for each other. I am soft for this one, still.

September: I'm picking a short one that I first posted on tumblr and then onto AO3; Seagulls. It's ... well, it's sad in a way, in that it takes place when Billy's dying at the mall, but it's also comforting in a way, because he gets to leave all that bullshit behind and is greeted by his mom again.

October: Picking Just another night at Motel 6 on Cornwallis, because Billy deserves to get to tell Karen no, and Karen deserves to be shamed for what she did (yes, in this fic she showed up). It was immensely satisfying to write.

November: I didn't get much posted in November (because NaNo), but I did get chapter 3 of Finding Billy posted (it's a finished fic now, though, don't worry). It's a whumpy fic I had to write after a couple of chats with friends, about Billy being held with the Lab people after the whole Starcourt thing, and then Steve and Max and Hop finding out and getting him out of there. Poor boy's been through a lot in this one - but things are getting better, promise!

December: Started posting Home is where the knitted mittens are, which is my latest fic. No ships, no romance. Just Billy finding out he's a werewolf and having to deal with that in Hawkins, Indiana, without much of a safety net. Listen, I'm weak for werewolf Billy, okay? And I made up some werewolf lore in this one which is a mix of all the things I like. (It was literally a reason for me to get to write something "nesting"-adjacent, without having to go into A/B/O-territory.) Definitely written mostly for myself, and I love it dearly. (Featuring werewolf!Scott Clarke too, because why not right??)

Huh, I never thought I'd had enough to fill a whole year's worth, but look at that! I'm proud of myself for this :)

Tagging @callieb (yes, individual chapters work!), @weird-an and @mikajupiterjonesingtimcurryfeet if you guys wanna do it as well :) (And YOU, reading this, if you wanna do it! Consider yourself tagged if you're reading this and think it looks fun - because it IS)

[envy-of-the-apple]

okay, i don't know what my brain's been on but it's been cooking really interesting yan questions and i'm just gonna swing this by you for you and the yandere stsg crowd to Contemplate and Discuss.

like, most yan fics are about establishing the relationship and what the yandere dynamic would be like in those particular circumstances. that's safe to say, yeah? most fics don't start 5 years into the relationship, and if they do get to that point, it's after establishing the baseline yandere dynamic and exploring how it would go maybe after a few parts. an in-depth look at an established yandere relationship doesn't usually start as a stand alone fic or a part 1.

but what's really intrigued me now that i'm thinking about all your yan stsg fics is just how they would play out in the future. 10 years in the future. 20 years in the future.

what would chewy be doing 20 years into her relationship with the naga men? what would it be like with the mafioso stsg? if they had children? if they lost children? what would life be like for them and reader then?

what would a stsg yan relationship be like if one of them died?

like, with individual yan fics of geto and gojo, i feel like their relationship (even it's depicted more platonically) would be an essential factor in explaining how either of them go with relationships going forward. losing geto obviously changes gojo and we get to see what that's like for him in canon, but if something were to happen to gojo instead? what would geto be like then, if canon diverted?

what would mafioso geto be like if gojo died, when they were say, a few years into their kidnapping of gem reader? what would naga geto be like if naga gojo died? what about the inverse?

what about natural concerns that come about with time and changes in a relationship? what about pregnancy problems? aging? health concerns, like illness or disease?

your personality changes as you grow older, too. what would an older reader be like in these situations? how would they be different from each other over time? like, i can see chewy becoming way more practical and nature survivalist than someone as sheltered as a captive apartment darling.

what would the stsg personalities become like, over time? especially if they lost the other in their pair? how would that change their relationship with reader, to have been with geto for maybe 10 years but captive reader for over 40?

would reader have (or expect) more agency in this situation? would it become less a throuple and more a couple, or would there be unbalanced expectations? would the yan obsession go into overdrive without their other half their to occupy their time and give them affection?

who would lose control? what would gojo be like without geto to hold him back? more reckless? demanding? what would geto be like without gojo to hold him back? more unhinged? meaner? nastier?

either way, no matter who is lost in these situations, one thing seems clear to me.

both of them would become more unforgiving. they already lost their partner. they're not losing you, too, no matter what they perceive 'you' to be.

these are all great questions and i appreciate the long ask pookie bear but i feel like questions that ask about the schematics of a yandere/dark relationship lowkey take the fun out of everything? idk for me personally an AU that i write just....stops whenever i write the last word and all the characters are in suspended animation. thinking about the aftermath gets a bit depressing:(

also i think it's very funny that u think chewy is gonna live for twenty years with two volatile nagas breathing down the neck 24/7

for RAST...i think since their relationship is a lot less 'unhinged', at the very least stsg coerced the reader into being their third instead of brutal force. so ya ig the mc lives long enough to have kids in that one.

[afternoonblues]

finally after almost 2 weeks, i've finished re-watching the raven of inner palace anime, re-read the first 5 volumes of the LN & completed the last and final 2 volumes. thus, concluding the whole series. (now, spoilers ahead!)

this is gonna be a long, a very much selfish ramble because i have so many things to say and so many feelings to feel so i just want to take things slowly and try to as carefully as possible articulate, for me to look back. i will probably talk about many characters along with the ones i had already mentioned during my first read of the vol. 1-5 during march of this year.

first of all, i didn't really expect that the inevitable sadness i felt while reading this story for the first time would resurface again. i almost deluded myself into thinking that i would easily skim through the 5 vols without much hesitations but...i was wrong. every single feelings rose up like steam from the hidden corners of my memory. but not just that, i could also additionally learn more about certain characters like senri, shiki, yozetsu and even eisei.

at certain parts of the story, i felt like i was reading again for the first time, feeling conflicted about certain characters like hakurai, shiki, banka (for example, why would she do that? why would she tell her father about jusetsu's secret even after all that knowing contemplations?) and her brothers but later as more pages were turned and we move along with the story, i understand her perspective and later, in the last two vols, her brothers too. it was serene how everything wrapped up at the end for these four siblings. they sort of became free of as ko jokingly said the curse put by their own father.

because we're on the topic of the ending, i'm gonna be honest, i was genuinely scared because i didn't want it to be too heartwrenching. i don't think i would've loved that feeling in my heart and soul. i am actually genuinely happy with how all the strings tied up at the end. all characters get their sufficient ending, albeit not all so satisfactory as we would all want but still there's not much of a tinge of utter sadness. except for, i guess, shin. but i will write about that a bit later.

the last paragraphs of the ending put such a big smile on my face. it was bittersweet, yes, but still an honest one. nothing out of ordinary and as i would expect of our main two protagonists. i liked that koshun and jusetsu never said any words of eternal parting during their last physical encounter (while they were still young). koshun said, "that's enough for today" after each of them placed their individual go stones. they kept communicating through sumaru, the star raven, the raven's original apparatus. i liked that their one common connection was the game of go. you know, i was washing my face this afternoon after finishing the final volume and realized something.

the go stones are black and white. remember how koshun said something along the lines - the moon has both shade and light. but koshun and jusetsu is both shade and light as well. they're not just two things respectively. both of them are inevitably a single thing - the moon. two halves of single entity. go stones are black and white. the moon too is both black and white, when in shade and when in light. therefore, this playing of go is the only thing that keeps them as one. this is that auspicious thing of their that they carry while on this journey of a relationship they have, regardless of how vast and distant it might be. i just...couldn't stop thinking about it. i really don't know if this is what it is supposed to mean but it is simply just my wishful interpretation. i will not enforce this theory upon anyone to agree with me.

i'm just glad that the hope and perhaps a dream that koshun had which is them still playing go even when they're elderly came true, after all. especially when he was not the emperor anymore and tied down by the shackles of the imperial ground. at the end of their lives, they were finally free. perhaps in next lives, they will become more closer and nothing will seperate them.

i was also glad that the story simply didn't end with jusetsu becoming free of the raven. i was worried that she would end up becoming a lone wanderer and go onto living a solitary life without at least a few people she made meaningful connections with. the absolute delight for me was when i read how not just onkei and tankai but jiujiu herself ending up tagging along with jusetsu on her path in becoming a sea merchant under the teachings of chitoku, kajo's father. i liked it very much when jiujiu was so adamant at joining her niangniang when she was embarking on the journey to find the other half of raven at je island. jiujiu knew that if she didn't, she would never be able to see her again. so good job on that, jiujiu!

as for tankai and onkei, i kind of expected them to tag along with jusetsu even when she would be free of all the shackles. this part was very much clear to me during the golden goblet chapter, involving tankai. the air changed after that time. the perfect found family to ever exist, i would say.

also the development of onkei's emotional openness with jusetsu was a nice thing to watch. he was practically distraught when jusetsu's soul drifted away. his realisation that at time of her imminent danger, he couldn't do anything. this never changed. he became overly conscious with the outmost safety and well being of jusetsu. things shifted in him after this incident and it continued till the end of the story. his feelings reflected more on his face and he became more open to talk and not just guard her out of liability. i think tankai remained almost the same. the only thing was that he was more honest and straightforward with jusetsu. his dynamic with jiujiu balanced out the reserved nature of both jusetsu and onkei, creating the perfect equilibrium.

as for kajo, i also believe that her ending was perfect too. that last encounter between kajo and jusetsu though....man, i teared up. also our girl told kajo that her father keeps her childhood shoes with him as an auspicious item while travelling on sea waters. for kajo who always thought that her father didn't think much of her, this must have come like a whirlwind for her along with the imminent departure of her beloved amei, jusetsu who finally...finally!!!! called her aje as she said her farewell.

oh, kajo, i cried with you. but i was so happy that koshun never abandoned her, which i knew he would never. and, i simply knew no one could've been a better empress than her. her taking in banka's child and adoring him is something i expected from her. even banka herself knows her son was in better hands. kajo has always been one of my favourite female characters in this story. since day one i haven't had a single conflicting thought about her. she was always so dignified and well-defined. truly the best aje jusetsu could ever ask for and i too agree that there's no way she could ever repay her back. it's a good feeling that it was kajo's father who took jusetsu under his wing, therefore, i would like to believe that the thread between kajo and jusetsu never severed or thinned. she sort of became a part of her family, her real amei.

while talking about conflicting, i can never ignore banka. now...look, i love this girl too. her character development was wonderful in my eyes. i was so goddamn happy when she lashed out at her father...which sort of ignited something in both shin and ryo. at this point, i had no idea about ko but oh dear....i had no idea what was in store. now...before that, i have said how i didn't like how even though banka knew what her father was like, she still gave away jusetsu's secret, all while she herself had opened up to jusetsu about her family curse and about her adopted younger sister. it was just...idk i was so taken aback by it all. but then i understood why did what she did. she was simply just a gaslighted seventeen year old girl, daughter of an absentee father, who simply wanted a bit of love and attention from him considering her mother was also no more. and later this also became evident in both shin and ko too as the story progress considering their mother too never looked at them and stayed cooped up in her room till her death. banka was simply...or i would say, the whole saname siblings are such a pitiful bunch. all because of that piece of shit of a father, choyo. he definitely did not get the death he should've deserved.

because what was that fucking logic again? just because jusetsu was not in existence to destroy that dusk jewel when he was having his rendezvous with his own younger sister, yo, who because of the saname clan curse would die eventually at fifteen. shouldn't her death have been resulted from multiple factors like her not knowing why a girl younger than her was adopted? what was this girl's purpose and the supposed curse in their family? also, the fact that not only a naive girl died on behalf of her, she had to also carry a child conceived through an incestuous relationship with choyo himself? we never really get her perspective on what her thoughts were on her relationship with her elder brother, choyo. i'm sure these two things multiplied way too much and became detrimental to her mental health and thus led her to death. where the hell does jusetsu's non-existence self come into play in all these? i have never in my life seen such bullshit logic for someone to literally do anything and everything to hate and kill someone.

and in all these, i would say it was shin suffering the most. the traumatizing truth of his origin just made me stunned. i never in my life expected this to ever happen. i always thought shin to be the better of the three brothers, especially considering how he had his own lil crush on jusetsu. i'm just glad he got to stand up against his father one last time, leave that godforsaken family, regardless of how much ryo resents him internally and live a new life, with a new name given by koshun. and most importantly, jusetsu was the one to console him. she is just such a good listener, a safe haven without any internalized prejudices. (she has done this countless times, with onkei, ishiha, tankai and even koshun.) anyway, i don't really think shin ever healed completely. his was the only ending that made me feel sad and incomplete.

as for ko, i had not much of an inkling of his personality...and considering the rumours that he might become the actual heir to choyo...i was like oh, i have an idea of what he might be like but that is what it is - just an idea, nothing more and nothing less. even with the way his first interaction with shin went as shin landed on ga province kept up with my idea of him but....then things started going downhill. the rumours were exponentially far from the truth and ko was just the most complicated sibling out of all the saname siblings, also afflicted with same things banka and his brothers were which at least i would say in his case, he got his saving through yozetsu jikei.

ko left me perplexed at times. neither did i like him nor did i dislike him. sometimes i feel empathetic towards and other times, i just absolutely don't like the things he says out of that mouth. his mind and his physical self were never in one place. this man was in a battle of his own. even though jikei fills up that father shaped hole in his chest, i still feel conflicted by what happened to jo after being verbally influenced by ko. while he got his saving, another got banished. kind of mirrors to what happened to him and shin, i believe. although for shin, it was self-inflicted out of external influence, kind of like self-exile. keeping his siblings at arm's length but jo's life gets eventually over. at least before ko came into the picture, he was doing something he was genuinely good at.

among the elderly people, i definitely love love love senri and jikei. these two are just so much of a favourite of mine. the best uncles i could ever ask for. i am also very glad that senri came into jusetsu's life at such a turnover point in her life, helping her, guiding her. somehow i feel like reijo and senri stands quite close to each other in jusetsu's heart. senri was the father she never had. plus both jikei and senri were fun characters too. they were elderly and far more experienced with life and the dealings of the world but still they carried a softness in their hearts even after facing their own trials and tribulations. unlike someone we know like choyo. the most detestable elderly character in this whole story. even i think gyoei perspective-wise had some legit reasons to dislike jusetsu. i personally find it unreasonable but i can excuse his extremely old age and long connection with reijo. at least hakurai too had his own redemption arc while fighting the ao god but choyo? nah, that man was just....ugh.

i'm just glad that senri and jusetsu kept communicating through letters even after he retired and she got freed and talked about her to others. jikei too, after his daughter's death, at least now he has a granddaughter to whom he's going to pour all his love that he wish he could give to his late daughter. especially without any regrets this time.

what surprised me the most apart from all these was the raven's unregulated emotional disposition. raven was truly one curious entity. her antics and personality were something i wasn’t anticipating at all. i had always assumed her to be a mysterious character with a heavy presence after all, with all the pretence that was set for thousands of years in association with the winter sovereign and eventually, with the raven consorts…especially contrasting to the menacing ao god. she was, you know what...a fun one actually. kinda badass too. and she is definitely not the bad guy people make her out to be. how sweet that even after the raven left jusetsu's body, she still kept her apparatus, sumaru to jusetsu so that she can communicate with koshun considering shogetsu, the owl's apparatus was there with him.

like that was her little thank you gift. for keeping her trust and freeing her to her true complete self.

oh another one, how can i forget? kosho. man....that whole interaction between jusetsu and kosho when her soul was drifting. ran yu kind of had every right to be scared of her. i too would be the same. i can never fathom how horrendous her obsession was...the curse and shackles she placed for every raven consorts to come after her. jusetsu was right. for kosho, ran yu was her tunnel vision. no lives ever mattered to her other than that.....not even her own. what a twisted character she was. but somehow idk i want a side story of how ran yu and kosho came to such point in their individual lives and then at last merged into one until again getting separated by death, that too in a horrible way.

additionally, i would like to say cho, even though was a minor character in the whole of the story was such a fun addition. cho was such a interesting fellow too, going into anti-existential crisis out of no where while witnessing the gods fight and randomly jumping into the sea all the while senri stood there flabbergasted, i let out a chuckle during that part for real…& then him washing up on the shore, all alive saying how “nah i don’t think the sea god likes me very much” to which senri absolutely disagrees saying how he couldn't have been any more farther away from the truth…what a silly guy. i love him.

shiki was one interesting fellow too. a grey one i would say. i don't have much to say about him because there wasn't much impact of him in my heart. he's just someone fighting his own demons. he has his own justifications for it and i guess, we all have our own too. good thing is at least, the final confrontation between hakurai and shiki let shomei's soul to pass over. i simply felt sympathetic for her more than anything.

random but now i wonder how koshun was like as a father? as he never really had a present relationship with his father and his mother's death has marked him for life. he had both a son from banka and a daughter from koei. i'm sure he was as gentle as ever. i can just not think of him anything other than that.

finally, as for eisei, what a lovely and bittersweet scene it was. the very last encounter we read between jusetsu and eisei where she asked eisei for his handkerchief while he was returning hers because it's auspicious to carry your relative's belonging while at sea. oh man. by this time, i was already sad with kajo & jusetsu's interaction so this just made me feel so devastated. her teasing at the end by calling him, brother or honorable elder brother....

in senri's words, "you never know where and how you're going to meet someone or whether they'll be able to help you. it's so curious how one single person can lead to another, and then another and another..."[....] "it applies to the dead as well."

overall, i would say i am just so exceptionally glad that shirakawa-sensei didn't leave all the loose ends untied for us readers to conjure up events in our heads but rather took it upon herself to close the chapters on each of the characters, regardless of how much painful their individual lives have been. all lives eventually end. we all become something unknown after our death. i'm just happy that our protagonists might not have gotten the usual romantic ending as anyone would expect but i think they had enough love between them for them to suffice till old age. such thoughts were presented by eisei and kojo multiple times during their individual internal monologues throughput the story.

koshun and jusetsu were more than lovers, family and friends, perhaps they were something we are yet to discover, you know.

P. S apparently, ishiha ends up as the winter minister, raven's oracles were from hatan clan after all (how interesting is it not that a raven consort herself, the final one ever taught ishina to read, write and speak who will not continue her legacy more or less) and i'm assuming ayura becomes the ritual coordinator. you can find some easter eggs here. i hope we get more of shirakawa-sensei's works in english. i just really love the way she builds her characters.

( + i would've completed reading the whole series much faster if kali puja & deepavali hasn't fallen inbetween. 2-3 days literally went by because i was busy with festivities responsibilities at the end of october.)

[genopaint]

So many weeks to catch up on... Here's week 32...

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut (also idk if I've mentioned it before but just as an FYI if you click the names of the dragons in the read-more they'll take you to the dragon's individual posts if it got one of its own.)

Daily Dragon #217 - Marshogon

Large amphibious dragons that serve as mini islands in large swamps and marshes. Many plants and animals live on the grass that grows on their back. They eat algea and micro-organisms living in the water, so they dont attack anything on their back.

Animals on its back actually help protect it from parasites!! Another redraw... Kind of. This is more like a MASSIVE overhaul of this 2016 (i think) swamp dragon design. I couldn't recreate the log helmet in a way I like so I turned it into some kinda triceratops horn.

Daily Dragon #218 - Vulture Wyvern

Exactly what it says on the tin, these birds are MASSIVE to the point they've reached dragon status. Though they could be incredibly deadly if they attacked, they mostly eat dead and decayed animals specifically to avoid combat

Daily Dragon #219 - Sheeva

Watching Clementj64's Mortal Kombat Lore video! I love these videos and while I'm not done with this one yet (I did finish it between the original post and now, it was very good), I DID learn that Goro and Sheeva are part dragon??? Yeah that's good enough to draw them for this challenge I think!

I was gonna do Goro, and I know there's a full on Dragon King... but... Sheeva's redesign is so fucking hot... I just needed any excuse to draw it

Daily Dragon #220 - Light Green

It's been a hot minute since I've done another one of my endless amount of alt sonas. I've been thinking about drawing this weird little dinosaur... sooooooo... here she is!! what are you gonna do about it, huh???

'light green' is also just like, a joke concept little name I came up with now cause Idk what else to call her other than small dinosaur green

Daily Dragon #221 - Crashadon

These dragons have evolved to go a step further than just breathing fire, they breathe explosions! Concentrated energy breaths that release into HUGE explosions when they reach their targets! They are considered to be serious threats to nearby towns

This funny fella is a redraw of THIS funny fella from 2020 :)

Daily Dragon #222 - Salamence

Another dragon type AND another pseudo legendary! Salamence, despite being a pretty regular looking high-fantasy dragon with a great color scheme. Isn't a Pokemon I was really into until recently. It's growing on me a lot!

Daily Dragon #223 - Groundramon

Another dragon I knew I wanted to do from the! I only really became a full on Digimon fan last year after playing Cyber Sleuth, but Groundramon quickly became my favorite teammate and favorite Digimon I've seen so far :)

The only reason this one took me so long is actually the same reason Blue Eyes / Red Eyes did... They're kind of hard to draw! Digimon are incredibly detailed but that's what makes them so cool and edgy

[kure-kirika]

I'm gonna write about my hcs for Homura as a system bc she has a Lot going on from that angle. I was going to wait until I finished a chart I had been drawing and sorted out each part's 'role' to my satisfaction, but I Really want to share it it's my favorite puella magi hc.

Ok so Akemi Homura. Firstly she has been through a LOT of trauma and bullshit so it's not even remotely a stretch to consider (esp given she has a history of frequent medical issues even before the main story).

Secondly she has some dissociative instances that happen as pretty plot-relevant things - the entire plot of Rebellion, for one. And, depending on how 'canon' you view it, Wraith Arc is another example of dissociative coding wrt memory issues/barriers, and carries a lot of plural coding on its own. Not to mention her incredibly detached approach in everything is a form of dissociation, as a response to being in an ongoing traumatic situation (being a magical girl and constantly having her friends taken from her or turning on her)

And honestly I'm just citing base examples off the top of my head and could most likely go into more in depth analysis for any of these points.

So she gives me strong system vibes. But furthermore, she'd be a rare case in media of a character with Multiple alters beyond just the 'good vs evil' trope, had this been done intentionally. And so I've picked out multiple alters that would compose her system, between the anime storylines and Wraith Arc, so I'm gonna list those out. As I said I haven't sorted out everyone's function/origin Thoroughly but I have pretty clear ideas for each.

Glasses Homura or 'Moemura' - the closest to the undissociated Homura, chronologically speaking and potentially in terms of function/personality. Might just have been the host for her daily life prior to her contract. Represented of course by wearing glasses, but her hair being braided (as seen in Rebellion) is another shorthand indication of her presence in the scene.

Akemi Homura, as we see her in the main series - most likely the second oldest alter seen by us. Formed directly to function as the main face of the system, as well as the system protector most likely. she's a sort of shield for the system by detaching all of her trauma and past timeline experiences from the present moment, acting as coldly and shut off as possible to further their collective goal (saving Madoka) and prevent emotional overwhelm. This also doubles to protect her more vulnerable alters and emotions, because as seen in flashbacks of earlier loops letting those show more often backfires than helps.

Wraith Madoka [Wraith Arc] - an introject alter modeled after Madoka. Unfortunately I haven't reread much of her part and my notes on her are elsewhere but I think she exists as a sort of... maybe soother for the system in a way, helping Madoka feel real in a reality where she is not.

Rapunzel Witch/Wraith Witch [Wraith Arc] - I'd probably classify this witch as a persecutor or other aggressive alter. She is born from the old memories and trauma, which is rejected by Homura in this story via memory manipulation (dissociation). This is done because this witch threatens Everything Homura has fought for and is initially represented in the story as Madoka's witch self, Kriemhild Gretchen, which further pushes that divide. The Rapunzel Witch is then fused with a Wraith and grows out of control, fueled by the power of Another antagonist to Madoka's world order (according to Homura's pov). The Wraith Witch then begins killing everything instantly, including Mami and Kyouko, and sets about destroying what Homura holds dear and/or has sworn to protect and keep safe.

Ai [Wraith Arc] - not entirely sure if I should count her separately from Wraith Madoka or not? Narratively she's essentially The Same Individual but everything about her is different functionally, so it might be a subystem deal or a case where Wraith!Mado split off of her. Ai was born narratively to manage Homura's memories, a representation of the 'miracle' that lets Homura retain her memories of the old reality. But she functions independently of Homura at points, as 'a part of Homura's soul that was eaten by a wraith'. She is the essence behind the creation of Wraith!Madoka as well as the individual behind its independent movements, all unbeknownst to Homura herself during this storyline.

Clara dolls [Rebellion] - these are already pretty clearly defined for us by the text, I think primarily as emotional holders and/or maybe fragments. I'm likewise unsure if I'd count Wraith Arc's Ai as part of their number, she has the same name as the unseen doll Ai but her function is somewhat different in practice. This might be chalked up to her being more consistently active than the others though, given how much "Ai (love)" drives Homura forward

Homulilly (black dress) [Rebellion] - I think I'd break her into two alters, given we have the black dress homura and then the fully-formed witch. In terms of black dress.... She's hard to gauge since I think her behavior blurs a lot with Homura's? But her motivation is different. She might also be a protector, but designed specifically for her Witch counterpart.

Homulilly (witch) [Rebellion] - This witch is most likely a trauma holder, which I think is pretty self-explanatory given what we see of her on-screen. I would probably count any portrayals of Homura during her scenes as Also her, especially the scene with Madoka's arm reaching through the window to her.

Homucifer [Rebellion] - whoo boy ok. Not sure what I'd classify her as. With her whole spiel and self-assignment of "The Devil of this world" she leans into persecutor territory in a way? But, her true motivation has nothing to do with painting herself as evil or punishing herself. Nor is her true motivation being Selfish and taking what she wants without thought. Her true focus is that Madoka becoming a God, separated from her friends and family, was Wrong, and so Homucifer exists to forcibly reunite Madoka with the life she gave up, no matter the cost. Selfishness is a factor, as is self-deprecation, but really her aim isn't anything straightforward beyond furthering the collective system's united goal of Saving Madoka, so idk what her Function is beyond filling that niche in a way the others can't.

So that's what I've got on her! Hopefully it all makes sense, if anyone has anything to add feel free!

[tmntjester]

Who’s your favorite turtle and least favorite

I'd have to say my least favourite turtle is 1987 Leo, I love him, but good gods he needs to get a personality X3 I can thoroughly appreciate and respect his ability to be a leader that his brothers feel confident enough to follow with little to no question or push-back (I only remember 1 episode where his brothers said they didn't need Leo as a leader and thoroughly found the fuck out, lol) and he has episodes of growth and over-coming obstacles and fears, but at the end of the day, I swear that boy has the personality of a saltine. (With maybe some silly cheese on top cause he likes to make silly ass puns and jokes, lol)

I honestly don't feel like I can pick a favourite simply because I feel like every turtle has their very unique and individual qualities about them that I absolutely adore and appreciate, honestly I was struggling to figure out a least favourite turtle, too, hahahah, so I'm just gonna pick my favourites from each series (and it's gonna get a bit repetitive cause I'm a simple bitch with simple pleasures🥰)

1987: Michaelangelo: He was my favourite from the get-go, I've always admired his skills with his nun-chucks, his general demeanor and just how caring he is. I think my favourite parts are when someone genuinely pisses him off and shows that he knows his ninjistu and his weapon all too well and you really don't wanna fuck around and find out with him because of that. He's a sweet soul and while I think he's terrible with kids in the series is till think he's a got a very genuine and kind soul as he constantly tries to bring in animal companions and pets (and in one of the comic series during this time, it shows just how sensitive he is and all he wants is community, love, and understanding). I can relate to him on the level of indulgence in medias such as TV, music, etc. (As it is with all Mikey's of course) But I don't think I could ever match his love for pizza (I think only 2012 Mikey could genuinely compete 👀).

2003: Mikey: Now Mikey in this iteration really hits home for me simply because I was probably one of the most, if not, THE most annoying kid you could've come across and encountered in your entire life. I belive it's because of that I was not well-liked and was heavily bullied and, because of this, I felt an immediate kin-ship with Mikey and you can pull it from my cold, dead hands. I've later come to understand that the way his brothers (namely Raph) interacts with him is simply how they, as brothers, show their brotherhood/brotherly love..or something like that (I still don't quite get it, honestly) and because of that my ADHD and RSD go into overdrive everytime I see someone interacting (seemingly) negatively with him, it's almost like a punch in the gut, y'know? I think it's because of this, my love for him is pretty much solidified.

2012: Leonardo: Now this one was actually a bit of a surprise to me, I kept trying to think which one I genuinely liked between the four of them in the '12 vers. and I thought Mikey, but I just like his psychy, then I thought Raph, and yeah, he comes in at a close 2nd, but I think I more-so really like what his relationship with Mona brings out of him. But with Leonardo, his autistic ass has some of, if not, THE most personal growth and development among just about anyone in the '12 series to the point I was practically at the edge of my seat to see how he grew and developed as the show progressed. I never really thought I'd be this invested with any Leonardo, but even through a screen his leadership qualities permeate and make the viewer feel like they can do just about anything they set their mind, heart, and soul to because you get to see Leo struggle time and time again and still come out on top, he's not perfect by any means or lengths, but by the gods grace he's fuckin trying and I genuinely think that's why he's one of my favourite turtles.

(although I REALLY like future Raph in this series 👀✨️)

2018: Donatello: I honestly haven't finished rottmnt yet, I'm almost done with the first season and while I love them all and find leo in this vers. annoying as hell, I can still see his leadership qualities popping through even if he's not seated directly in the leadership position. Donatello, though, has little to no interest in being a leader and more so just looks to improve himself technologically-speaking, he's genuine in his self-expression, (and I swear to the gods I just love all the autistic/adhd bitches around here alright).

Thank you so much for asking, this was really fun to think about and try to put into words, my brain kinda goes a million miles a second sometimes and can be hard to keep up with and put onto paper(let alone verbal words, lol) but this was really enjoyable, thank you ^-^💖✨️

[cheesycokeart]

Rambling about scrapped projects so I don't feel like the work went to waste

I've only really made like, 3 little games. Which admittedly, I should be trying to make myself Finish more projects just so I can get more experience and be able to reliably work on something larger. Inbetween, I get the spark to make a buncha different ideas that usually don't get very far for one reason or another. I know this is a bad habit, and I'm tryin' to work on it.

Otherwise though, gonna talk about a few projects where I wanna show off what little work I did put in before deciding I was better off killing it, including a "follow-up" to Grenade Volley.

This is just some not-even-prototype-level stuff with myself rambling about things I wanted to do. So be warned before hitting read more!

Drivin' Breach

So this was started in part based on my desire to create something utilizing the Grenade Volley world with a more "safe" gameplay style. I absolutely love old distance games, like Learn to Fly, Kitten Cannon, Shopping Cart Hero, etc etc but I realized it wasn't a super common style of game these days so wanted to take a crack at making one.

I had the basics of it going and I was pretty proud of what I had artistically and in terms of tone. Ambitiously, I even wanted a fully animated opening cutscene, but in hindsight that might've been a bit much to try and pull off.

To try and set it apart, I imagined that one main hook would be having a wide variety of "special items" that you could used to propel yourself further, each one controlling differently for players that wanted some variety, and maybe even implementing individual upgrade lines for said special items. I wanted to make the "Magic Tail" item a buttplug tail.

After a bit of time of working I just realized things weren't coming together how I would've liked them to. Physics weren't quite satisfactory, I couldn't figure out how to implement gliders, and I wasn't super confident about balancing it to stretch the game out but also make it feel rewarding. Those combined with waning passion for the project just kinda killed it off. I was pretty proud of the art and stuff I did for it, though, and what I had going so far.

I also ended up applying some of the code (where the world moves around the player, allowing for infinite movement) to Downhill to Infinity!

(Also that shop music you here is Closed on Sundays by Mana Junkie, a CC3.0 track I found online)

Earth Servant Ms. Usagi

I was super enthusiastic about this one for a while!! I was stoked about the idea of making a game using Ms. Usagi because she was one of my many characters made with games in mind from the get-go. I ended up settling on this weird mix of Megaman-style, fast platforming, and stylish melee combat. Notice, though, the animations are not finished at ALL.

I wanted to push fun and snappy combat, encouraging the player to bounce between enemies while using environment and speed to their advantage. Think like a hectic anime fight where the main character is running around boppin' every bad guy while darting between them. A style meter was also applied, rewarding chained attacks.

To go over the moveset: Attacking from a standstill performs an uppercut, attacking in the air performs an air kick. If you only tap the attack button for the air kick, it stops Usagi in mid-air and keeps her close to the enemy. If you hold it, however, it will both put her current speed into the kick AND launch the enemy according to said speed. Holding down while attacking in the air will slam to the ground. She also has a blaster move that's especially good for continuing combos. For defense, I added dashing maneuvers and a block/parry inspired by MGR.

I still think this kick feels fuckin sick to pull off.

Few problems came up. First one was just plain ol' being scared of level design, but that one I coulda bruteforced through. More importantly at one point I took a break and went back to it later only to realize that it Wasn't Fun. Movement felt way too slippery, I wasn't making the fast momentum-based movement blend well with the fast combo-based combat. If I wanna do anything like this again, I'd have to figure out a better way to blend this.

Either way, I know for certain I'd LOVE to make a Ms. Usagi game in the future, I think she could make for something very fun and poppy and stylish.

BONUS

During one of the beta versions of Godot 4, I had short-lived thoughts of wanting to make a wave-based FPS to play with its 3D features. I wanted the game to have a gross, crusty aesthetic. It never got far at all, but I made a "gore harvester" machine for it and I still really like that thing. It was fun to draw such ugly textures.

[duckyfruitbat]

I Play Spongebob Games for Content!

Last week I decided to dust off my PS2 and play some games, I then had the idea to tie it into this blog somehow. My eyes drifted to the bottom of my shelf and there were four Spongebob games I still had from my childhood. No reader I am not a masochist, I'm just a slut for pain. Let's not waste time and get right into it in the order I would've played them in growing up!

Revenge of the Flying Dutchman

This is the first one I ever had and also my introduction to the concept of saving a game. This one follows the story of Gary disturbing the Flying Dutchman's slumber and now Spongebob must find a way to put him back to rest. All the while the Dutchman starts taking his friends to be part of his new crew. I'm gonna say it here, this is the worst game out of the bunch. The controls are just floaty, and the jumping mechanic feels time consuming. The combat is awful, but I think the developers were aware of that so enemies often wait for you to approach, except for the stray snails they charge at you with full force. The character models are really rough around the edges, the worst one is Plankton of all characters.

This game is also doing something to my poor PS2. There are two loading screens back to back and I can hear my PS2 struggling and sweating just to load the inside of the Krusty Krab. It really should not be struggling with a game like this.

The weirdest thing out of this is that the eyes on the characters are individually animated. I don't mean the eyebrows, that would be normal and an easy way to make characters expressive. I mean that the pupils and iris's are individually animated. This only really works with the hypnotizing scenes as the characters are being kidnapped. It gives them a wibbly woobly effect, the effect works nowhere else. All the characters have a lazy eye and sometimes one eye just doesn't move in cut scenes. The game also has a few sound issues with the end cut scene having moments of silence.

Something really surprising is that I have not encountered a single glitch in this one. Props to the dev team for making it actually stable, Lord knows management didn't give a damn.

Battle For Bikini Bottom

Now here's an obvious edition to the list. This was the second Spongebob game I had and it was of course my favorite. It's one of those few licensed games that are remembered fondly and has a dedicated fanbase to this day. So much so that in 2020, the year of misery and hellfire, it got a remake for the modern generation. I played the Switch version for this cry for help that I'm calling a review, and it is what I remember.

BFBB is a standard collect-a-thon wearing Spongebob's skin, that is also fairly show accurate. Most of the voice cast is of course here, except for Clancy Brown, for what ever reason he wasn't in the original and he's still not here. At the same time it would be weird hearing the real Mr. Krabs in this game. There are plenty of good jokes here that have been immortalized into meme culture like Mrs. Puff smuggling stolen art works.

The levels are pretty fun, with plenty of missions and collectables in each to keep you busy. My personal favorite being the dream level that caps off with a joke from Patrick. The worst level though is the Kelp Forest, and it is painful. The stone tikis, and the caves are tedious, and I swear there is no way to beat Mermaid-man's sliding time without breaking the game in some way. I broke the game just trying to do a normal slide down. Honestly I think that this level could've been replaced by something else, maybe the boating school because that school has more appearances than the Kelp Forest.

Aside from my complaints the game still holds up pretty well, with the exception of the performance. I don't know if it's just the Switch version or just an issue with my copy, but as I was playing through it, I saw more and more glitches. At one point I was launched up into the void beyond the sky box, for no apparent reason from what I can tell. I mean I'd still play it again, this type of game tends to be my bread and jam.

Spongebob Squarepants Movie Game

This one was of course put out at the same time the first movie was making its rounds. It is what you'd expect from a movie tie in game, but only in the cut scenes. The cut scenes look and sound like a conglomerate of early drafts, concept art, and unused voice lines from the actual movie. The in game cutscenes are perfectly fine, so I was wondering why they didn't just use that the whole time. Then I remembered that this was probably made on a massive time crunch to make the movie release date. The game itself was made by Heavy Iron who also did Battle for Bikini Bottom, so they share a lot of assets with movie themed additions. Playing through both this and BFBB, it's clear that the enemies were just re-skins of the robots. Even the enemy introductions use the same formula.

Gameplay wise it is just like BFBB minus Sandy, with all the same attacks returning as well. The levels are fun enough, I remember spending a lot of time in Goofy Goobers, just listening to the silly music. The trench levels always peaked my interest, except for the bits where you go into so sort of angler fish, that was a little weird. In the end if you just want more BFBB, this is the game for you if you can look past the cutscenes.

Creature From The Krusty Krab

This was the standout surprise out of the bunch, this game suffers from not enough time and resources, but the creativity behind it is admirable. It's based on the dream episode where Spongebob is bouncing around everyone's dreams. It is a standard level progression system but a handful of these levels have unique art styles that are pleasant on the eyes and pretty creative. The first level is Spongebab having a Twisted Metal racing dream where everyone is drawn with intense expressions while Bikini Bottom is a diesel punk design. The second level is Patrick dreaming about being his self insert character for a super hero comic book, and the town looks like it was drawn in a comic book. Planktons dreams starts out as a pretty standard side scroller before becoming a monster movie, and from then on it is just the monster movie. Spongebob's sections have the most variety, starting as the race level, then he gets eaten by an alaskan bull worm and his next level is in there. What is with these games and having levels inside creatures, is someone into vore? Patrick ends up flying on a rocket in space and

Back to the monster movie bit, this is where the budget really went, it's on the box, it was in the marketing, it is a third of the game. It really worked backwards from the idea of giant kaiju Plankton. Starts with rampaging as Plankton, then Spongebob is flying around trying to find some way to stop him, then Patrick teams up with Mermaid Man to finally take him down. Each one has its issues but also I had a good time with it. Here's something interesting about this game, it has three endings, one for each character. They only unlock if you collect all the little goops for Patrick and Plankton, so a good reward if you like exploring levels.

Playing through this game, it had a lot of potential. No really, if it had more time and resources it could've been a pretty great game. There's mostly a lack of polish, there were a couple of minor bugs when an attack didn't hit when it should have. There were a couple of animation issues, the mayor character glides across the screen, some characters have their feet merging with the floor, and others are really stiff. One thing that was I found annoying was the characters talking a lot during gameplay, all the above have that but this one should have dialed it back a bit. Beyond those issues, this game could have been great, maybe on the same level as BFBB.

Conclusion (It's Passed My Bedtime)

So what did we learn from all this? That my opinion on BFBB was basic and expected? That I may be a masochist? Well yes, but I have found a couple surprises here, like with Creature from the Krusty Krab, I had no expectations going into that one. I had the least expectations for ROFD but it somehow didn't cause a fire despite its efforts, and the movie tie in was just a spin off of BFBB. This is making me reconsider the pile of licensed games festering in the corner, I may have to dig through it to see if I find any hidden gems.

[faun-the-hound]

Fantasy Au post again cuz I wanna talk about it.

(links to picrew posts, if you want individual character info and partial designs: part 1(Garroth, Zane, Aph, Laur, Dante, SK's), part 2(Zoey, Levin, Malachi, Nana, Lucinda), part 3(Vylad, Nicole, Aaron), part 4(Phoenix Drop residents), part 5(Jo9), part 6(werewolves)) I honestly forgot Travis and Cadenza, so I'll put them at the bottom

In these posts I've referenced a number of things without much context, and I've left out a number of things present in the Aphverse.

The Fantasy AU doesn't currently have an official name, but to simplify, it's Aphverse characters in a high fantasy setting, more blatantly fantastical than MCD, taking locations from MCD and personalities from a mix of MCD MyStreet, and putting the characters into a (kind of as far as I'm aware) original plot.

It focusses on Aphmau, an 'angel' originally from another continent (Tu'la), who crash landed on Ru'aun after fleeing cultists who she was sold to as a child. They worshipped her for her resemblance to their Goddess, and her snow white wings. She's not actually an angel, but aviakin, a bird person, a dove specifically.

She crashes on the shore of Ru'aun after flying across the ocean for several days, battered, starving and dehydrated and is found by Garroth, a dragon exiled from his family, and Zenix, the tiefling kid (sixteen) he's travelling with. Having been kept in essentially a glorified birdcage her whole life, Aph stays with them, getting to be good friends with the boys. Zenix stains her wings blue-purple to hide them, making her look more like a weird magpie and less like the Goddess.

Eventually they're captured by these guys under the name Callers of The Void, a cult Zenix was indoctrinated into, then later fled from and was actively being hunted by. Aph escapes, meets Laurance, a merrow/merfolk, and rescues her friends, and a woodland elf named Zoey who was also being held captive along with a sickly aviakin child she'd been trying to care for (Levin).

Across Ru'aun, Corruption has been spreading, killing people and animals alike and turning them into essentially zombies, mindlessly hunting anything that moves and spreading the Corruption to other villages and towns. The Corruption originated in the middle of the Sacred Forest, creeping through the villages and towns scattered throughout it, slowly eating away at the magic that flows through the natural world, turning it against itself.

Aph and the gang had already been dealing with monsters and Corrupted beasts travelling outside of the forest, but being forced to go through it to escaped the Callers brings to light just how bad it had gotten, and Aphmau makes a decision- she was going to save Ru'aun, find the source of the Corruption, and destroy it. Her empathy and naïve optimism drives her to seek a way to save the miserable, fearful people living within the boundaries of the Sacred Forest, and eventually, she succeeds, making a number of new friends and allies along the way, finding herself a new home and family. -----------

Travis and Cadenza below cut

Cadenza(merrow), and Travis(demon)

I don't have much for their inclusion or stories. Cadenza is the adoptive daughter of Meteli's two Lords (Joh and Hayden, they're married) and is good friends with Laurance, who often swims over from Bright Port, where he lives and works as a pickpocket. They aren't related, but they're the only merrow in the area, so they regard each other as family anyway.

Travis is from Gal'ruk, lives on an entirely different continent to the main story, so I've no clue how he'd get involved, but he probably will. I'm thinking, rather than being a social outcast because he's a demon, he's an outcast because he's royalty. Still because of his father, but for different reasons. Perhaps he meets the group while on a diplomatic trip or something, I dunno.

gimme ideas for them please and thanks.

and also feedback on the Au as a whole.

I'm gonna turn it into a fanfic eventually